Hello and welcome to PTVsport’s live coverage of the 2nd ODI. Watch Pakistan vs Zimbabwe: Pakistan vs Zimbabwe Highlights in HD.
Pakistan ODI squad: Mohammad Rizwan, Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Agha Salman, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Irfan Khan, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Can Zimbabwe spring another surprise against Pakistan?
They had beaten Pakistan in the 2022 World Cup and in a Super Over in late 2020. Zimbabwe would want to repeat it in the upcoming ODIs
Perhaps even an attempt to preview this series is a bit of false advertising, because it implies a wider context in which a three-match ODI series between Zimbabwe and Pakistan is placed. It is not. It was a series earmarked to happen in the Future Tours Programme (FTP), so a window had to be found, and the last week of November sounded just about the right time for it.
There is, after all, no logical planning sequence that takes anyone directly from Hobart to Bulawayo, a journey much of this Pakistan squad has made. Just last Monday, they wrapped up the final game of a six-match white-ball tour with a T20 in Hobart, with another six matches now scheduled over the next fortnight in Zimbabwe. Unlike that tour, where each game was played in a different city, Pakistan will not leave Bulawayo at all on this tour.
Zimbabwe’s calendar is much more open for obvious reasons. A romp through a T20 World Cup sub-regional Africa qualifier last month is their most recent international engagement. It caused something of a murmur on the wider cricketing stage due to a record-breaking rout Zimbabwe inflicted over Gambia, totting up the highest T20I score and the biggest win in the format’s history.
Pakistan come in with new head coach Aaqib Javed, who earlier this week declared ODI was the most important format for them at the moment. The Champions Trophy is a home tournament for Pakistan, who are also defending champions, so making sure the 50-over side is perfectly fine-tuned matters more to them than most.
They come fresh off the back of a commanding ODI series win in Australia, their only 50-over cricket to date since the 2023 World Cup. But this series is part of that rare bounty of ODI cricket that now tends to cluster around a big 50-over tournament; they follow it up with three such games in South Africa, followed by a home triangular series that New Zealand and South Africa will also play in.
While Aaqib said Pakistan wouldn’t tinker too much with the ODI side, there are a few departures from their full-strength team. Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah have all been rested. With Fakhar Zaman also missing owing to a mix of disciplinary and fitness issues, it means some unfamiliarity both at the top and tail of the innings.
Captain Mohammad Rizwan may have to shoulder more batting responsibility, while Abdullah Shafique and Saim Ayub have opportunities to make the opening slots theirs.
How Pakistan balance the side is also a point of interest after they went into the Australia ODIs playing just four specialist fast bowlers, planning on simply bowling Australia out in 40 overs. It’s likely Pakistan go with a less gung-ho approach on tracks that may not offer the same zip, with spinners Abrar Ahmed and Faisal Akram getting chances to showcase their skills against perhaps less storied opposition.
And that’s that, really. There’s the risk of the odd shower for much of the next week; Zimbabwe tends to get seasonal rain around this time of year. Bulawayo will offer a nice atmosphere; Zimbabwean fans always tend to make sure of that. The relationship between these sides is convivial, and for Pakistan, it’s one of very few places where they will not be thronged by local media or supporters. It’s not the highest-profile cricket tour in the world this week, but it’s a laid-back one in a country that enjoys its cricket. If that sounds like your sort of thing, that’s really all the context that matters.